


Too Cool For School

by words_reign_here



Series: The Beginning After The End [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Domestic, M/M, Some Fluff, hints at smut to come, some conflict
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-02
Updated: 2013-03-02
Packaged: 2017-12-04 02:41:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/705596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/words_reign_here/pseuds/words_reign_here
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's time for Sophia to start school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Cool For School

Sophia learned languages as easily as Castiel had and loved to babble senselessly to anyone who would listen. It took Michael visiting one day (which he had taken to doing quite a lot, these days) to point out that yes, some of her vocabulary was in Enochian.

After which when Michael held her, he spoke to her exclusively in the angel's language. It seemed to please Sophie that someone took her seriously.

Sam would often take her to the park and stop for a supply run with Sophie. It was on one such run that he realized how strange his life had become.

"Uncle Sammy, can I please have the pink blanket?" Sophie asked, speaking in full and complete sentences at a year old.

"Sophie, you have fifty blankets at home. What do you need _another_ blanket for?" He asked. She was bundled up in a pink jacket and matching gloves and a hat. Her shoes were neon pink and her thick pants were pastel pink. Everything about her was pink.

"I like pink. And I like that blanket. Look at the edges!" She crowed, pointing to satin edge of the blanket.

"Come on, Uncle Sammy. How can you deny this little angel anything?" A mocking voice came from the other end of the aisle. Gabriel. of course.

Gabriel did not deny his niece anything. All she had to do was ask. So when Sophie spied her other uncle at the end of the aisle she wiggled out of Sam's arms and ran to him. He swept her up in his arms and, as she did every single time she saw him, she asked, "Hug me with your wings! Your wings!" Which earned them a couple of strange looks but that's what happened when you had one uncle the size of the Jolly Green Giant and the other could displace time and space to get his niece everything and anything she wanted.

Sam had only felt Gabriel's wings once, but he could understand her affinity. Sam had been drained almost completely by a vampire when Gabriel had showed up and killed it. Sam lay at his feet and he saw part of Gabriel's true form; and he was beautiful. And he sighed. He sighed because he was leaving Dean and Cas and Sophie and he regretted that, he really did, but if he got to spend eternity surrounded by beauty like this, well, sometimes trade offs had to be made. Instead though, Gabriel had knelt next to Sam and gathered him up in his arms. "Aw, kiddo. You really think I'm pretty?" He asked, the sarcasm still there despite the fact that Sam's breathing was hitching and he was crying and whimpering. But Gabriel had wrapped him up in arms and there was warmth and love and even kindness.

Sam gasped and looked up at Gabriel. Well, he tried to anyway. But he was shining so brightly that Sam closed his eyes and gave himself over to the feelings that washed over him.

He woke up in his own bed three days later, with Sophie tucked neatly into his arm, Dean on the other side of him, reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.

She smiled up at him and said, "Daddy, Uncle Sammy is awake." Dean looked up from the book and closed his eyes for a moment and then said, "Can you go get Papa, baby?" She smacked a wet kiss on Sam's cheek and jumped from the bed in search of Cas.

"Damn it, Sammy. How many times do I have to tell you? Call Gabe. Tell me. Tell Cas. Hell, I would even take a prayer to the winged asshole Michael but don't go off, half cocked alone like that!"

"They had young girls in a barn. Just stored up and waiting, Dean." Sam looked up at the ceiling. "It won't happen again."

"Damn right it won't." Gabriel's voice rang out of seemingly no where. "Because your branded, kiddo. You literally will always be in my sight." He winked lasciviously. And that, Sam swore, was the last time that he would feel Gabe's wings.

So he understood the warmth and the love that his niece sought from Gabriel. Not that she was lacking for it, or really anything. Cas sat with her every night, answering her questions and reading to her for hours. He would wave away anyone who offered to help with the impromptu lessons, saying he had an eternity to work on his patience. On those endless night, Dean and Sam would work on cases. They still hunted but had cut back some. Dean would not leave Cas and his baby girl alone for all the lives in the world. He had sworn to Cas that first night that Sophie was theirs that he would not knowingly put himself in dangerous positions anymore.

Well, anymore dangerous than normal. Which led them to one of the most intense acts of parental protection to go down in the books.

"Wait. Hold on. You want to what?" Sam asked. He held up a hand to stem the flow of Dean's words.

"It would work, wouldn't it?" Dean asked, staring at his brother. He knew it would but he wouldn't be able to complete the task without Sam to help.

"I mean, yeah, it would but don't you think laying an entire Devil's Trap over the town is a bit much?" Sam asked skeptically. "And what happens if we have to move? You can't keep Sophie protected forever." They both glanced over at the table where Cas was diligently and ever patiently teaching Sophie the Enochian symbol for why.

"No but I can protect her while she is here. And when she gets old enough, Gabriel will teach her how to use her Grace, I will teach her how to shoot and you will teach her how to use spells. Cas already has the genius thing going on. So that when she does go out there, she will be ready." Dean ran his hands over his face and up into her hair. "She won't be raised like us, Sam. We will teach her everything and when she is ready to go out there, she will know. Ok? Just give me the chance for that."

Sam always lost arguments about Sophie to Dean.

It took them close to a year to finally close the Devil's Trap over the entire town and another four months to rid the small town of Bloomington entirely of demons. But yes, finally, Dean got his small piece of paradise. His brother, his angel, and his baby girl. Finally, at nights, when he slept he found a sort of peace.

There was never much contention in the Winchester household. Dean was happy with Cas and strove to make everything good and right for his little girl in a way that his own father had been unable to understand. Holidays were a big deal and birthdays became once in a lifetime events. Sam, was searching, as he always did for something to fill in the dark hole that had been there since he had learned of Azazel feeding him demon blood. He hadn't found it, but he had found a dear friend in Gabriel, someone he could turn to when Dean was not there.

It wasn't until Sophie was five years old and Cas stumbled on private school brochures and research done on local schools that their hard earned peace was broken.

"Dean. What is this?" Cas asked angrily, throwing the brochures on the table in front of him. Sophie was already tucked into her own room, fast asleep.

"Schools." Dean asked, leaning back in his chair to look up at Cas. "They are schools, Cas. She is going to have to start next fall."

"Why." The single word came out as a statement, a low growl and Dean's defenses were immediately up. Cas had not talked to him like this since he had claimed he was God. "Is the education she is receiving from me not... adequate enough?"

"It's not that at all, Cas." Dean said and stood. He closed the book in front of him and caught Cas' eye once more. "That kid is already smarter than both me and Sam. But she needs to be around kids, man. I gave in about the preschool thing because you were right, they didn't give her the kind of care you do. But this is school. Where she can go in and make friends-"

"And they can bully her and harass her and pressure her into doing things that she does not want to really do?" Cas hissed.

"I would honestly like to meet the kid that could peer pressure our daughter into doing anything she does not want to do." Dean threw back in his face. "She is strong. Stronger than I was at that age. She is smarter than most of the people I know, excluding only you and your angel brothers. She's ready for this."

They will ruin her education-" Cas started.

"Cas, that's enough!" Dean shouted, startling Cas into silence. "She needs to go. She has to learn about people so that she is not stuck in this place all her life, scared to go out because of what people might or might not do."

"So, now this is about me, Dean?" Cas shouted back, scaring Sam who was in his own room. He had _never_ heard the two of them going at it like this. "I can see that you are dissatisfied with my inability to find pleasure in being on the road six months out of the year. I know you hate that we can't travel as freely as you once did now that we have a small child-"

"That's not it at all!" Dean shouted back. Which was a partial lie. He did miss the road but it was worth it to come home from a hunt to see Cas asleep in an old Zeppelin tshirt and Sophie tucked into her bed of pink and purple next door. It was worth it because Sam was always down the hall and Gabriel was a mere prayer away.

Dean raised a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. "No one can ever replace you as a teacher, ever, Cas. But she is going to have to learn people skills. She is going to have to learn how to deal with them." Dean made his way around the table and to Cas. He slipped his arms around Cas' waist who was still very unwilling to forgive him. "Baby, you will always have me to explain those references you don't understand. But we won't always be here for Sophie. I hate to say it, but the shitty part about being a parent is that one day our little girl is going to have to live without us. And when that day comes, she has to be prepared for everything that life can throw at her, ok?"

Cas relaxed into Dean, just as he always did. "I guess you're right. But this just means extra work for me."

"Why, angel face?" Dean asked. Cas smirked. It was his favorite term of endearment.

"Because I am going to have to fix everything that they teach her wrong. And the textbooks here, they have it mostly wrong." Cas sighed deeply. "Fine. She can go. But she will go to a private school." Cas leaned forward and Dean couldn't help but feel a thrill of excitement and leaned forward just a bit too. "Stop that." Cas said, swatting at him. "I'm talking to you right now." He plucked a brochure from the pile on the table. It showed a beautiful red brick building and trees and flowers. Cas had already read through it. It was the only one that even remotely satisfied him.

"Of course you would," Dean sighed. "That's the most expensive one."

"Gabriel will pay for it." Cas said smugly.

"No he won't." Dean said immediately.

"In 1543, he was captured by mortals who had an angel killing blade in Budapest. He was tortured for 22 years. I was the only one who was able to find him and rescue him. He will pay for the school."

"Cas-"

"Do not start Dean. Do not start with this incessant need to be do everything on your own. Don't. Or I will balk at the entire school at all. Do you hear me? It's this one or not at all. And Gabriel will pay for it because he loves her. Not me or you or even Sam. He loves that little girl in there and if I say its what's best for her, Gabriel will pay for it." A muscle in his jaw ticked and his eyes were dark and stormy. It was sometimes easy to forget how he had really been an angel of the Lord until he got angry like this. Angry like this meant that Dean bowed his head and muttered his agreement.

Angry like this meant that Dean was probably going to walk funny for the next couple days. Sometimes, the fight was worth it.

“Fine. But this is it. Unless we need help with a hunt or something, we aren’t asking him for anything. You got me, Cas?”

“No, but I will later on.” Cas’ eyes glimmered. Dean shivered.

Sam padded out to the library and eyed the two of them. The fight being officially over, he invited them to watch the latest shoot 'em up movie Gabriel had bootlegged for them. Dean was interested but Cas demurred. “We aren’t quite done with our discussion. There are details to be hashed out.” Castiel stalked off to the room and Sam raised his eyebrows.

“Should I make up the couch for you, man?” He asked.

“Probably.” Dean sighed, his shoulder slumped.

Gabriel showed up right then with the movie and a bag of candy. “Princess already asleep?” He asked.

“Yeah. You know how strict Cas is about bedtime. I tried to keep her awake for you…” Dean trailed off and eyed their closed bedroom for a moment before sighing and straightening up. “All right. I might as well go face the firing squad.”

“You in trouble?” Gabriel asked.

“Oh, yeah. I’ve never seen those two go at it like they did earlier.” Sam provided, always the helpful one. “So they won’t be joining us for the movie.”

Gabriel grinned and winked at Sam who rolled his eyes in turn. “What was the fight about?”

“Well, Cas doesn’t want Sophie going  to school. He feels like he can better educate her here.” Sam said.

“He can.” Gabriel said, snapping his fingers and procuring a hot fudge sundae for himself and the sweet espresso that Sam adored. “And public schools are just training grounds for the torturers in Hell. And they are filthy.”

“Thanks, Gabe.” Dean muttered.

“But Dean brought up the fair point that that Sophie deserves to be around kids her own age. You know, socialize." He blew gently on his drink and took a gulp. It was a sure fire way to keep him awake for the next twelve hours.

"Also a fair point. So what was the compromise?" Gabe asked, dipping his spoon into the sundae and raising his eyes to Sam. It was like Dean was nonexistent. He was _right there_ and they were talking about a fight _he_ had just had with _his_ boyfriend but he could have been on the fourth moon of Jupiter for all it mattered.

"Apparently, an exclusive, expensive private school that her rich uncle will be paying for." Sam said.

"I assume that would be me." Gabe asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Exactly. Something about you owing Cas for something that happened in the 1500s?"

Gabe nodded sagely. "I do owe him for that. Or I can just do it because I love that little rug monkey."

Feeling as though he had been dismissed from this conversation, Dean slipped away and started down the hall. He sighed at his bedroom door and then walked in.

 

To be continued... 


End file.
